Former MP Volodymyr Landyk believes “Putin’s tourists” are organizing pro-Russian demonstrations in Luhansk with the help of the former administration, as reported by ZN.UA.

“The former administration is obviously involved. And who is paying for all of this? All of this needs to be paid” Landyk told ZN.UA. “You think the people rose up here? Nothing is further from the truth. These are paid demonstrations. Those who lost power want to demonstrate their importance. What they’re saying is return our power,” he said.

Additionally, Landyk believes the Oblast administration and security forces have demonstrated complete helplessness and are not in control. “There is no government here now, ” he says. “There is a vacuum that is being filled by someone. In fact, it has been filled. If only our own people would come here and take control, even if the Germans would only come. Finally the Russians came. Where you have a void, it will necessarily be filled with something. I think our central government is still too busy celebrating victory and deciding on positions,” said the former MP.

Landyk also confirmed that pro-Russian activists seized the Luhansk broadcasting station that belongs to him. “People came looking for Lyashko. They’re all over the place now — at the Oblast administration, the police, the prosecutor’s office. They say that Lyashko is supposedly hiding here and that he had arrested their leader. I called the chief of police who promised there would be no looting. Right now employees have barricaded themselves, but we are still on the air,” he said.

Yesterday, March 9, participants in a pro-Russian opposition demonstration seized the Luhansk Oblast Administration building and forced the governor Mykhaylo Bolotskykh to write a resignation letter. The demonstrators elected Oleksandr Kharytynov, head of the group “Luhansk Guard,” as “National Governor.”

Early today, MP Oleh Lyashko boasted on social networks of his participation in a special operation to arrest one of the organizers of the pro-Russian demonstrations, the deputy of the Luhansk Oblast Council Arsen Klinchayev.

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